‘I thought I was dead for sure’

SAINT JOHN, N.B. — First, Jonathan Wright heard a loud hissing.

Then he was thrown to the ground and turned to see a wall of orange, as flames surrounded him and several other workers after a massive explosion at the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John, N.B., on Monday morning.

The American contractor said his workspace was approximately 35 metres from the blast – and the only stairway out was blocked by flames.

“You could not see anything besides smoke and flames,” Wright said. “I thought we were done right there.”

Wright told his story Tuesday, as the refinery regrouped from the Thanksgiving Day explosion which shook the historic port city shortly after 10 a.m. local time and injured four workers.

Mayor Don Darling said Tuesday residents living near the refinery remain “very nervous,” even though the fiery incident has been stabilized. He said the city’s large industrial base comes with risks and there needs to be a broader discussion about the interaction between residents and industry.

The city of Saint John has warned of possible “flare-ups” as the refinery comes back online.

At the time of the explosion, there were as many as 3,000 workers on the site.

Wright, 43, an electronics technician from Florida, said he’s worked at refineries around the world for 11 years, but has never experienced anything like Monday’s drama.

“It was a (expletive) nightmare, I’ve never seen anything like that in my entire life,” Wright said. “I thought I was dead for sure.”

Wright said he had to jump through high scaffolding and pipes several metres in the air to escape. He didn’t realize his coworkers were behind him until after he was outside, and he thought they were likely killed.

Once he got outside, Wright left the premises after getting a ride with someone else who was about to pull out of the parking lot.

He said he feels lucky to have escaped, and that neither he or his coworkers were severely burned. Wright said he pulled muscles and sustained scrapes and cuts in the clamber to escape.

“It was just a blur getting out of there. I just never imagined jumping through all that stuff, pipes and scaffolding and stuff. I just never thought that would happen to me, but you know, it did. I just can’t believe we weren’t burned.”

Wright is flying home to Florida today, and said most of all, he is looking forward to hugging his kids and his fiancee when he lands.

Irving Oil tweeted on Tuesday that the site is “isolated and contained,” and said workers were expected to be back to work Tuesday evening.